he's right on target

The irony, of course, is that the people, ordinary people, hundreds of thousands of them, or millions, could bring this country to a halt. Imagine, for a moment, every person in Boston, doing an old fashioned "we will not cooperate" act until the bastards in D.C. pass a single payer health care for all bill. Imagine, thousands and thousands of simple Americans walking over to Boston Commons, and, instead of watching the Moody Blues, as I once did, sit and protest. Sit there every day from 9-5 p.m. every day of the week. Shut down every business and give everyone a week off. Then let them happen in LA and Chicago and Seattle all on the same day. Watch those fuckers in Washington sweat and feel obligated to ACT.

"... the view from the sidewalk is nothing but livid little people who wonder what it has to take before someone goes to jail for being a crook."

Things will only get better when the view from the sidewalk becomes that of the livid little people themselves taking crooks out of positions of responsibility, putting them in jail for being crooks, and not putting more crooks back into those positions.

The sad thing in reading this is that the PEOPLE did go to the streets, more than a year ago, and thought they were putting a president in office who would put an end to the silly waste of two wars, make heath care a reality, and the rest--I don't need to list it out for this cohort. His has turned out not to be THE MAN. He is a pleader, not a leader, and more performer than reformer. Yes, the corruption of our system is inveterate and deep and the damage done to our country by Bush and his criminal administration a huge handicap. But it is clearer than ever that money=power=more money=more power in this country, and the bad guys walk, usually right to the bank. But the only people taking to the streets are those who really belong in asylums, the rest are just having a smoke. We just might be screwed.

Maybe for real change to happen it would take new bailout of the too big to fail?

I've seen a number of american companies trying to get the world monopoly in their field of activity. I wonder what they're been thinking because going after this model only brings instability and no monopoly.

I've been gathering this hunch pretty much the same way you do from the sidewalk. In my case it by looking the behavior of the (many) companies I've been working for.

Since it's a difficult bet, they don't have time to think about anything but themselves which is not something likely to bring any stability whatsoever.

These companies are having a shot at world monopoly in their field, only can have a shot because of the funding they can get from Wall Street for which they have to pay a return of around 15%. Which is impossible on a constant basis.

So, either we are facing a new era of work force enslavement, or, a second bailout because nothing in this kind of pursuit is really possible anywhere else than in theory.

Between the two, I prefer the second bailout to the return of enslavement of a large part of the population.

It should not be long before it happens, because of the instability of the model, or because the enslavement will have to become really obvious and to show itself in the open to be of any use.

The sentiment of the article is spot on. However, it fails to explain how the people Pitt refers to would respond by electing Scott Brown to represent them. Even if the alternative was imperfect and there was frustration about the Democratic party inaction, how would giving up a filibuster proof Senate HELP the cause of the "little people?"

When you help rig the system against your self interest, and then complain that it is not working for your benefit, that is at best unintelligent. I agree that Obama has abandoned many of his progressive promises to benefit the middle and working class. But giving the GOP the tools to obstruct reform and then whining about lack of reform is just silly.

Instead, the folks of Massachusetts should have elected a Democrat and taped a note to the Senator's door saying "Don't come back home and do not expect re-election support until you have achieved Single payer health care, a public option and true finance reform!"

And then send a copy of that Memo to the local bars in every Senate District in the country.

Listen to Moyers' guest tonight.
The criminal fraud will not be touched by the
cosmetology of the phony congressional action.
Bush's appointees are still in there thwarting
justice. They need to get BOUNCED!

"If Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power, have done to lead his fellow citizens into good government?... If their people indeed had been, like ourselves, enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be obvious. 'Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve Italy from the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a nation entitled to self-government, and do its will.' But steeped in corruption, vice and venality, as the whole nation was,... what could even Cicero, Cato, Brutus have done, had it been referred to them to establish a good government for their country?... No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and their people were so demoralized and depraved as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome control. Their reformation then was to be taken up ab incunabulis. Their minds were to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and deterred from those of vice by the dread of punishments proportioned, indeed, but irremissible; in all cases, to follow truth as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession. These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure of order and good government. But this would have been an operation of a generation or two at least, within which period would have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have quashed the whole process. I confess, then, I can neither see what Cicero, Cato and Brutus, united and uncontrolled could have devised to lead their people into good government, nor how this enigma can be solved." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams

Just need someone to hang one of the CEOs - or burn him alive - or disembowel him... publicly. Anyone is qualified to start the process. I will gladly chip in a few bucks each week for a great defense attorney to get him off the hook. If a few million other disgruntled, out-of work, foreclosed, trying to survive the greed people also toss in a few bucks each week... we'd have the start of a "We the People" fund. But, until heads roll (by the hand of congress or by the hand of the people) these weasels will not be deterred from continuing the same practices.

From"Liced Christ"

"The irony, of course, is that the people, ordinary people, hundreds of thousands of them, or millions, could bring this country to a halt."

It happens often in most European countries. It's called a general strike. It happens when labor organizations stand together to protest outrages that effect all of the working class.

It wont happen here in the US because of the near non-existence of organized labor, and in the rare instances of organized workers, there seems to be very little cooperation, that is cooperation between craft unions, pilots unions, teachers unions, etc. Union organization is a culturally different phenomenon here in the US because it appears to arise from a perceived need to support parochial self interest - the plumbers take care of the plumbers and the pilots take care of the pilots. It would take a huge shift in the collective social behavior of the US population for this to change. Those who control US society take advantage of its adherence to an irrational, mythical ideology of rugged individualism and enrich themselves by promoting it.

Mr. Rivers, thanks for a stimulating piece from the street. I found that it speaks truth, the kind our politicians need to hear and deal with in a constructive manner.

Another incredible job. I am one of the countless millions that work like a dog for little pay, struggle, terrified about the future.
I'll march, I'll speak up, I'll shout it from the rooftops. I want action like so many many of us. I voted stupidly for the dream. To "Liced Christ" everytime I read you-Man, you hit it on the head. Let's do what you say! We need the change and it has to come from us...
And Will Pitt. RIGHT ON. You are the best. Blessings...